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An event held in June celebrated team members who retired when no gatherings happened during COVID. Baisch celebrated 14 individuals who, when added together, had dedicated nearly 400 years to the company’s work.
says that this allows him to constantly be an “undercover boss” without being undercover. “I get to interact and learn from our team, our clients, and our contracting and vendor partners. For these interactions, we continue to evolve our culture to take advantage of the positive things and eliminate or adjust the things that aren’t quite working,” he explains. “We have a flexible work environment now, and as we look for new team members, our search has expanded to include potential teammates located outside our geographical area.” In addition to a people-first culture, Baisch has a long history of contributing generously to its retirements. Combining its company match and profit sharing, Baisch contributes up to 13 percent each year to its retirement accounts. And a new benefit that they’re very excited about is paid volunteer time off. This allows their team paid time off to volunteer in the communities where they work and live. For Van Gompel, the bottom line is that you cannot please all the people, all the time. He says that trying things that you’ve never done before helps to develop your experience and your decision either works out or you learn from it and improve. “Make the best decision you can with the information you have, be a life-long learner, and enjoy the journey with the people you get to work with,” he says.
LIFE-LONG LEARNER, from page 7
progress to their design team, clients, and contracting partners which greatly increases efficiencies. “I’m always looking for opportunities to continue to make Baisch great for our team and clients,” he adds. HAPPY PEOPLE; STRONG CULTURE. People stay at Baisch because the company has always focused on relationships. Creating strong relationships helps them to trust each other and to develop a constructive atmosphere where they can have difficult conversations. They incorporate activities outside the typical work environment to help grow their relationships with each other. They have lunches together throughout the year, celebrations for anniversaries and friendly competitions within the office contribute to the team atmosphere and to encourage the team to engage with people outside their typical departments. They also host family events, such as a night at the local minor league baseball team, to get to know each other’s families outside of work. Van Gompel knows that there are many skills required to lead a successful firm, but he considers two of the most important to be emotional intelligence and empathy. “Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognize and understand the emotions in yourself and those around you, while empathy is the ability to understand how others feel. These two skills have helped me navigate the everchanging COVID environment as well as other office dynamics,” he says. And, while Baisch has always had active principals, he says that working in the business and on the business ebbs and flows throughout the years. Being actively involved with projects has huge benefits for working on the business and he
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THE ZWEIG LETTER AUGUST 29, 2022, ISSUE 1455
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